"We have the full resources of Magnimar at our disposal. Our vault is filled with magical wards and defenses to prevent theft. You will not find a safer place this side of the Pathfinder Society's Grand Lodge in Absalom. And as a reward, each of you will be allowed to claim a single item from the Council's vaults," Sheila says.
Screaming Moon looks at Fioralba with some concern, hoping that they won't be forced to break her spirit again.
"That seems like more than ample compensation for our effort, don't you think, Fioralba? We have already seen that Baraket is far too powerful and dangerous to be left out in the open, and its presence will make us targets.
What do you think?"
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Hope was quiet for most of their trip to see their contact and when she saw the Heidmarch Manor she was stunned. She'd never been to a true city before and she looked like the typical country bumpkin seeing one for the very first time. She never knew so many people lived so close together and the manor was larger than her home was!
Once they met with the Lady of the house Hope found she was more nervous than she expected to be about the meeting. She let the others do most of the talking until Screaming Moon tried to convince Fio that they should give up the sword. Hope knew she needed to deliver the report and reached into her pack to get it. Once she had the document, still sealed, she stepped forward and held it out to Lady Heidmarch, "Anti Krysta told me to give this to you," she said, not looking at the Lady's face but somewhat to the side, "She went to investigate the Cat-Kit-....." there was obvious frustration in her voice as she tried for the right word and finally said, "Kitticombs of Wrath once we told her about what was going on. She wrote this after she did and said for me to give it to you."
It was as if a humungous weight had lifted from her shoulders when Fio hands over the sword. Elanna hadn't noticed it was there previously, but now that she recognizes her sister is finally away from the thrall of such a powerful artifact, there is a sudden lightness to her being.
She doesn't make a move, but does express a true and honest smile, not often seen on the Aasimar's face.
Sheila carefully dons the runewarded gauntlets as she accepts Baraket. "You've made the right choice. I thank you, and all of Varisia thanks you for securing such a dangerous artifact."
She accepts the letter from Hope and reads its contents. She frowns slightly, but does not comment further on it.
***
After you claim your rewards from the vault, you return to the entry hall. The clerk, Welben, seems chagrined that the council is to pay for your accommodations. He grumbles and grimaces as you wait for a pair of carriages to arrive to take you and Audrahni to the Gryphine.
Located in the northern reaches of Magnimar's Capital District, the Gryphine is an elegant, two-story building of fitted limestone blocks, with artfully carved pillars supporting a long portico out front. You have been given accommodations on the second floor consisting of a suite of two bedrooms (each containing one single bed and one larger bed) flanking a cozy parlor. The rooms are magnificent, with fine linens and plump quilts on the mahogany-framed beds, flawless Qadiran rugs, hand-painted floral wallpaper, and portraits of Magnimar notables by gifted artists. Fires already blaze in each of the fireplaces of all the suite's rooms, and the windows look down on dimly lit backstreets of the Capital District.
A magnificent dinner fit for royalty is served in the parlor by uniformed servants. Once you finish your meal, you are able to settle into your fine accommodations, and perhaps appreciate the fawning service you receive from a staff accustomed to catering to the smallest needs of the pampered wealthy.
Screaming Moon is pleased with the day's events and appreciates feeling like the party made a difference, but can't shake the feeling that there is more to be done.
With no further duties ahead of them, he watches with interest as the carriages arrive and the footmen dash about to set up the steps and open the doors. He attempts to engage one in conversation about the city as the women begin boarding the carriage, but the man seems so uncomfortable with the small talk that he gives up.
The ride to the Gryphine is exciting, as Screaming Moon takes more time to get to actually see the city and he finds the grandeur of the buildings wonderful, though some of the excitement begins to wear off as he enters and perceives the looks of disapproval from the nobly-dressed patrons.
Dinner begins well, as he watches with interest the dance of the servants bringing in course after course. He again attempts to speak with a few of them, but perceives that the attempt is throwing off their concentration and impeding the flow of the evening, so he focuses more on the new foods being presented.
Sampling each of the dishes with interest, he soon finds that he does not care for the rich sauces and ends up feeling more nauseated than sated.
When dinner is over, he and Ruby take a walk to see some more of the Capital District. They make their way over to Usher's Hall and spend some time examining the monument in the square. As time goes on, the strangeness of the city and the press of all of the people becomes more unpleasant, and Screaming Moon finds himself beginning to grip on to Ruby Meadow's arm, seeking comfort.
After the third time they are stopped by the city watch, demanding to know their business, he decides to return to their quarters. Attempting to lay on one of the soft beds for a few minutes is so uncomfortable that he moves into the parlor and curls up with Tsu-la in front of one of the fireplaces and begins crying softly.
Hope was relieved when they were able to leave Lady Heidmarch's presence. The noble woman made Hope very nervous for some reason. Maybe it was because of her own past and the things she'd done to survive the last year or so, nobles didn't like thieves at all after all.
When they were escorted to the vaults to look for what they would like to take Hope found herself stunned at all the options available to them. She looked through things like cloaks and rings and pendants for protection. In fact a nice cloak might be just the thing. Then a glint of darkness caught her eye and drew her gaze to a diadem of silver with a black onyx set in it.
Something about the diadem called to her, spoke of the darkness of the Void and the hunger of the thing she'd been given to. As revolting as it was to her Hope walked towards the thing in a near trance as she heard the void whisper within her mind to take up the diadem that it was made for her. Hope reached out and grasped the diadem carefully and put it on her head. The act sealed her choice as she felt the power of the onyx gemstone and knew it would help her with it's own stored power.
When they were loaded into the carriage for their ride to the inn they would be staying at Hope was shocked at the opulence of it all. The carriage was nice, and the servant’s largely left her alone, but she largely kept quiet as they rode to the inn.
There was a bit of trouble when the bellhop at the inn tried to take her pack and she wouldn't give it to hm. Her eyes went pitch black and she unleashed the hold she had on her power which caused a bit of disruption as things started to swirl in towards her. Once he gulped and stepped back she clamped down on her power again and smiled before heading up to her room.
The inn itself was huge, fancy, and horribly uncomfortable to Hope who had adjusted to life on the and living in the bowl of a tree, but the bed was going to be really nice. When it came to meal time Hope gorged on the offered food trying a little of everything. Some of it she didn't like very much but the rest of it was actually pretty good.
When evening came Hope saw Moon and Ruby go out for a walk and thought about going with them if they let her. Instead she decided against it and was going to enjoy the comfort she found herself in as much as she could. She sat before the fire for a while and laid down on the couch. At one point she even called forth her void kitten to play with for a while.
It was fairly late when Hope got up to go to the bathroom and she heard something from the main room. She finished her business and cleaned her hands before going out to see what was going on. She saw Screaming Moon curled up before the fire with Tsu-la and saw how his shoulders shook. Hope had done enough sobbing lately that she knew what that meant and tried to decide if she should talk to him.
Hope wasn't comfortable with getting involved but she felt she owed the man at least enough to go see what was wrong. He had been there for her a lot when she was upset and she knew the human thing to do, even if it felt rather alien to her, was to go try and help. Squaring her shoulders Hope padded softly into the room in a nightgown she'd bought and sat down on the comfy couch as she asked, "Can I help Screaming Moon?"
Screaming Moon wipes his eyes and looks around at Hope. It takes a few moments of blinking before he can focus on her face. When he realizes who it is, he relaxes a bit and turns back to the fire.
Quietly, in an almost childish tone, he responds, "I don't like it here. The people are mean, the beds are too soft, and the food is too..." Not able to think of a proper adjective, he just trails off.
Triel takes her time picking through the vaults once Baraket has been relinquished. Countless trinkets of unfathomable age and power fall underneath her discerning eye, and are just as quickly passed over in favour of other things.
A fine cloak... but it looks too distinctive. No way I'd be able to hide with that. That diadem looks nice--oh. Hope took it. Right, she'd probably get more use out of that anyway. A ring of invisibility? Don't trust them. Besides, we can already do that without needing to rely on cliché Rings of Power.
Can't believe you're being picky HERE, of all places. Come on, there's plenty of cool things to choose from--one of them's BOUND to be to your taste!
Triel shakes her head as she looks through the next vault--one filled with different suits of armour. And I can only choose one. I'm going to choose one that suits me--
She comes to a dead stop as she enters the armour vault, her eyes being immediately drawn to... what looks like a black catsuit on a nearby armour rack. The masked drow walks right over to it and begins the process of taking it off the rack.
"...this is... is this spider-silk...?" She whispers, feeling the fabric's texture underneath her gloved hands.
...this can't be. The only place you'd find a suit of this quality would be...
...home.
Triel doesn't even look at the other items in the vault. She bundles up the suit and stalks out. "I've got what I want."
-------------------------
In the wake of the dinner (an already trying ordeal, considering she needed to keep her mask on at all times), Triel finds herself alone in her suite, staring at the floor-length mirror before her four-poster, curtained bed. Her equipment lies scattered about the room--her scythe leaning against the dresser, her clothes hastily discarded, her backpack dropped by the bedside. Now, she's dressed in the spider-silk bodysuit she retrieved from the Pathfinder Society's vaults.
"Feels tight, yet it breathes so well... I could probably wear this under my clothes and no one would even notice!" She comments as she checks herself out in the mirror.
And apparently, you can make it look like however you want it to.
With a thought, the suit's colour shifts from black, to white, then to a soft sky blue and back. Another thought, and it looks like a suit of spiky leather armour--with another, a fine white, floor-length backless dress.
The drow's eyes start to sting, and she rubs them with a finger. It comes away wet with a tear.
...it's not much, but it feels so much like home.
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Fioralba was reluctant to let Baraket go, but deep down she knew there was no way she could make a case for keeping it in her possession and letting it go so it could be properly protected was the only wise course of action. When Screaming Moon looks to her, she can sense his fear, no the fear from all of them around her actually, that she would fight this.
She lets out a long breath, closing her eyes as she nods silently once to him to proceed. When she opens them, she looks at her sister and sees her infectious smile, causing Fioralba to sprout a small one of her own.
Her frustration and sense of loss is temporarily forgotten when the vaults are opened and they are allowed to take their pick. Her eyes marvel at the opportunity to replace the weapon with something powerful and less ... controlling.
Finding a beautifully crafted scimitar, she reaches down to touch the blade as says says "Well hello there-" and instantly slices her finger open. "Ow!" she remarks, shaking it and moving it to her mouth to suck on it for a moment while she remarks at the impossibly sharp blade on it.
Picking it up, she tests the weight and balance and swings it a few times before smiling and settling on the weapon.
Later, at dinner, she looks over her allies and thinks back to that first time they all gathered together and how quickly things have changed since then. For example, Hope seemed to be more in control and less on edge and Ela.
Oh Ela.
Letting her wineglass linger in her hand, she stares at her sister as the past weeks fly by her in head. Watching her silently for a moment, she reaches out and takes her sisters empty hand and squeezes it. When asked what that was for, she shakes her head with a smile and says "Nothing."
Later, when shown to their rooms, Fi flops onto her bed and says "I love it here. The people are rich, the beds are soft, and the food is amazing. Amazingly free!"
She giggles and slides her hands under her head, letting her alcohol-induced declaration fill her head, wondering how long they will be able to drift along town to town, getting free meals and acquiring expensive, powerful gear.
Hope listened to Screaming Moon talk about what was bothering him and considered it carefully. She wasn't sure how to do this, how to comfort people, but she wanted to do her best. "I kind of like the bed myself, it is far better than living in the bowl of some tree roots for a year. The food I thought tasted good but it was too..." Hope's voice trailed off as she looked for the right word too.
Hope gave up searching for the word and shrugged, "I can't speak for the people. I know my mama knew them because she grew up here," Hope gestured vaguely at the city, "I'm not sure where exactly but she was from here." Hope's voice turned sad as she said, "I know that after she left the city the last time before I was born she never came back again. Antie Krysta told me some really bad things happened to mama the last time she came to the city and she refused to come back because of the bad memories. I don't know what happened to mama but I was told she 'lost everything she had cared for' before me during her last trip to the city."
Sitting up, Screaming Moon wipes his eyes again. "Your mother lived here? In one of these, um, palaces?", he asks, struggling with the word.
He looks at Hope with a bit of wonder. "I guess this must be like coming home for you. The home of your people anyways." Screaming Moon's eyes drift, staring through the walls in a northern direction as he reaches down to ruffle Tsu-la's fur.
Hope shook her head and said sadly, "I don't really know where in the city she grew up." Hope thought for a moment and then said, "I think Antie Krysta said something about her growing up in the Ordealea district? I don't know what that means though."
When Screaming Moon said this must be like coming home for her Hope shook her head and said, "I grew up at the orphanage where you met Antie Krysta, going there was like going home again. This is my very first time in Magnimar."
Hope looked at Screaming Moon and asked him curiously, "What is it like where you grew up Screaming Moon?" She leaned over slightly and propped one arm on the arm of the couch while drawing her feet up beside her.
Screaming Moon looked confused for a moment at Hope's response. Could she really have no pull to the land of her ancestors?
The thought is quickly suppressed by Hope's question, and his eyes take on a far away look again as his lips curl up in a slight smile. "The Storval Plateau is a vast, untamed land, with every type of terrain imaginable. From jagged snow-capped mountains to fire-swept arid plains.
The Shriikirri-Quah range mostly on the southern plains, a sea of tall grasses. In comparison to the Cinderlands, or the giant-infested mountains, it is not that hard of a place, but the grasses hide many dangerous beasts and natural dangers." He sighs wistfully and pauses for a moment.
"The Storval is an unforgiving land, but one full of life that makes you proud when you prove that you can survive there. Survive, I say, not control, for the Storval teaches us all that life cannot be controlled. One must adapt in order to survive."
Screaming Moon gasps and his eyes grow wide. He looks around at Hope and gives her a sly look. "And that is exactly what you wanted to remind me of. I am upset because Magnimar is not the way that I wish it to be. But, to succeed here I must learn to adapt while preserving my essence."
He reaches up to grasp Hope's hands as his face beams once more. "Such wisdom, and so subtly done. Perhaps I have not been doing enough listening."
As the evening wears on, there is a knock at the door to your suite. When you go to check, you see the hallway beyond the door is empty save for a pair of small packages sitting on the floor. Both packages are wrapped in red velvet. One is tied with a black bow, the other green. A folded note is attached to the package with the black bow. The note, written in a feminine hand but lacking a signature, reads, "With admiration, a gift of sweet candy and a sweet smoke. Enjoy, new heroes of Varisia."
Triel looks around with a skeptical eye before taking the packages into her room.
New heroes of Varisia? Guess it's a step up from 'creepy walking target'.
Now I need to know what these are... and what we got ourselves into...
"Hold on." Fioralba says, walking out of her room to see Triel approaching the packages. "Let's make sure this isn't a trap."
Fi scans the packages for magic and then waits until her sister looks them over to ensure they aren't trapped to explode or something else nasty.
Fio doesn't sense any magic auras. Elanna, though, is able to find a trap on the package with a green bow. It is rigged to release a cloud of toxic gas when the container is opened.
Triel sighs.
Figures.
"Well, at least we're becoming important enough to want dead now. Back home, that's a sign you've made it big."
"Perhaps. Yet, this trap was not even subtle. It is insulting that anyone thinks we would have fallen for it.
Would they have been careless enough to stay to witness the effects? They might be watching the balcony now. We could set it off and see who is watching."
Hope blushed at Screaming Moon's compliment and said, "Um, if you say so." Seeing that he seemed to be in a better mood Hope got up from the couch and said, "I'm glad I could help." her mouth opened wide in a big, tired, yawn, and Hope said, "I'm going back to bed, night, night." Hope sounded very much like a child about then, maybe vesitage of the child she once was leaking through from whatever horrors she'd experienced that had burried it, and she promptly left and went back to bed.
On her way back to her room, Hope feels someone watching her. Turning to look, she sees Ruby Meadow watching her from the door to her room with a cold expression.
Ruby Meadow's eyes hold Hope's gaze long enough to let her know that she was, in fact, watching. Her gaze then shifts to Screaming Moon and her expression becomes conflicted.
Screaming Moon glances up at the trapped packages and sighs moodily. "It would likely be safer to simply disable or destroy the package, but if someone wants to set it off, I can make you immune to poison."
Elanna shrugs at the pathetic attempt on their lives, "We can just make them inert or something?" Elanna suggests before fiddling with the Thehm's package.
"Easy, pass it over here." She asks, and attempts to help with the others.
"They won't be a problem anymore. Let's not care about this til the morning. I want a good night sleep right about now." She says, looping an arm around her sister's waist and pulling her in closer.
Elanna easily disables the trap on the package. Both are now safe to open. The package with the black bow contains a box of rare gourmet candied tropical fruits imported from Garund. They are delicious, and worth 10 gp. The trapped package contains a long, thin, mahogany cigar box that holds expensive, spice-scented Katapeshi cigars. The cigars are worth 150 gp.
"Nice work, Ela. Still have the touch, I see." she says with a smile, pecking a kiss on her sister's cheek before turning to look back at the items as her sister pulls her in.
She points to the cigars and asks, "Those look very expensive. Perhaps we could track down where they were purchased and try to identify who left them?"
"But thats exactly what they want. These are a calling card wouldn't you say? I don't think whoever sent them expected them to work and knew we would open them and want to know more." Ela sighs. "I suppose we should still follow the clues, but Im still not going to trust anything we find."
Ela spends a few moments eyeing the cigars, as if they tempt her to give one a go. "Whats the bet these are safe?" She adds hopefully.
"I would think that setting the trap on the box was probably all that was done. If they double-trapped them by poisioning the cigar on top of it, well, that's just rude."
Fi picks up a cigar as well and says "These probably are fifteen gold a piece!"
Screaming Moon shakes his head at the interchange, and goes back to morosely studying the fire.
"Do what you like with them, but if you choose to smoke them, do it out on the balcony. I'd prefer not to breathe the poison fumes."
"Someone should keep watch. Just in case someone follows up." Ela says. "Thanks for offering Screaming Moon."
With that she pulls her sister back into their room and shuts the door firmly.
"Right, no more interruptions." She decides, keeping Fi close. "Tonight is about us. It's been too long and we've got a lot to celebrate." Her lips curve upwards into the sly smile that her sister knows so well.
You retire to your bedrooms for the night. Triel gives Ela and Fio some alone time together before she slips into the room and settles into the bed across from the one they share.
It is quite late at night when the drow's sharp ears pick up on some soft footfalls on the carpet of the room. She opens her eyes to see the window to the suite hangs open. A masked bugbear in a black-hooded cloak stands over the sisters' bed, raising a curved sword high as he prepares to strike!
"Oh, for--WAKE UP YOU BLOODY IDIOTS!" Triel shouts.
Hope heard the sudden shout from Triel and rolled from her bed to her feet and kept moving. She just barely got a clear view into the room where Triel and the Sisters were and saw the bugbear about to do and she quickly sent a blast of gravity rocketing towards him with enough extra force to knock him back.
"WHAT!?" Fioralba shouts as she awakes with a start at the warning, tumbling out of bed as she gets wrapped up in the sheet and tries to throw it off. Wearing nothing doesn't seem to bother her as she scramble over to her gear and picks up her blade.
Tsu-la adds his scream to Triel's as he is jolted out of sleep.
Heart racing, Screaming Moon jumps up from his place in front of the fire and races to Triel's door, flinging it open while standing out of the way.
Prepared for sudden action, like any warrior, Ruby Meadow rolls out of bed while grabbing the sword she propped nearby. Racing into the parlor, she stands near Hope waiting for the chance to rush in.
Elanna leaps out of bed, a mirror image of her sister, as both of them scramble for their weapons. Screaming Moon opens the door to the bedroom, giving Hope a clear line of sight to the bugbear. With a powerful blast of force, she shoves the would-be assassin through the open window!
The bugbear crashes to the street below. He quickly scrambles to his feet and hurls a smoke bomb down. The burst of smoke conceals the bugbear from view.
Hope grunted as she bit back a cry of pain from the backlash of her power being unleashed. It hurt, alot, but she pushed through anyway. Seeing the foe fall out the window Hope went to see if he was still standing since she knew she was the main one who could still hurt him from up here. She saw nothing but smoke from the bomb but Hope was not going to let him go for trying to take away what was her's.
You should not let him fleeeee. the darkness told her, He tried to take what is yours, what already belongs to youuuuuu. Make him pay, go after him, jump out of the window and float, release gravity's holdwith your greater will.
Hope hesitated only an instant before she put one hand on the window sill and went through it. She flung her hands out below her and began to fly through the air by some unseen power and then went up above the cloud so she could look straight down on it from above.
Screaming Moon gasps as Hope darts out the window, then looks on in amazement as she starts floating.
He rushes over to the window to see the cloud of smoke, then calls to Ruby Meadow."Quick! I can get you down there!
Concentrating on the feeling of Hope that he has absorbed while linking her life essence, Screaming Moon waits until Ruby is next to him, then connects with the void and opens a wormhole connecting to the street right next to the smoke cloud.
Not questioning her Shaman, Ruby rushes forward with sword raised and suddenly finds herself on the street.
Completing the motion, she swings into the cloud, but finds only air.
Elanna grabs her rapier and whirls around just as the bugbear is shoved out of the window.
"What is with this town?!" She yells in pure frustration before looking around for her sister and her clothes, in that order of importance.
Triel grabs her scythe and runs to the window, forgetting her hawk mask in the heat of the moment.
That looks like quite a drop, Triel--
--and we're going to have to make it if we don't want that thing to escape--
Wait--that was a bugbear, right? Let me tell it to stop!
You can't even SEE the blasted thing! Now--
"--shut up and let me jump!" The drow mumbles aloud to herself.
Fioralba doesn't need a wormhole to get down there when there is a perfectly good hole through the window. Wearing nothing, she also leaps out into the street, scimitar in hand.
As you move to surround the cloud of smoke that the bugbear hides within, he emerges for a brief moment, slicing at Ruby Meadow with a wakizashi! Then the smoke envelops the assassin once more.
Triel watches as Fi leaps out of the window, stark naked and swinging her scimitar.
...well, that settles it.
She silences Vindir's objections and jumps out the window after her...
...and her landing isn't nearly as dignified as Fi's. She falls on her face with a THUD!
See?! I WARNED you!
"Zu'tour phor, Vindir!" The drow curses before forcing herself to her feet.
Ruby Meadow grunts and glares at the smoke as she feels the poison coursing through her. Wishing that she had had time to don her new cloak, she tries to slice the bugbear again.
Landing with grace and barely noticing the pain in her shins, Fi dashes forward opposite of Ruby and tries to cut the would-be assasin down. As she swings her blade towards the creature, she says "Hey! Get off her you big oaf!"
Unfortunately fighting in the buff takes a toll as she looses her footing and swings wide.
Screaming Moon begins to concentrate and reach out to Triel, only to watch as the drow jumps out the window and tumbles to the ground.
Looking for a different way to help, he begins casting. As he does so, his hair begins to stand on end and the scent of ozone permeates the room.
Hope knew she couldn't stay up here and attack but she equally was not wanting to get in close to the bugbear. Instead she maneuvered to the roof of the building across the street and landed then prepared to strike when she could.
Elanna nimbly leaps down to the street and moves to engage the bugbear. Fio misses, but Ruby lands a powerful blow with her blade! The smoke concealing the assassin dissipates, revealing him for all to see.
With a swift motion, the bugbear applies more poison to his sword before slicing Ruby again!